“All kinds of things were taken — from a dining room set to the American flag mounted outside the home.”

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – A Gowen couple is filing a federal suit against Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, saying the bank not only stole their belongings, but also, their sense of security.

Rick and Sherry Rought say the same bank that sold them a home for their adult daughter is breaking into the house and treating it as a foreclosure.

The family’s plan was simple. The Roughts bought the foreclosed home in cash and fixed it up, then commuted from their primary home, moving in little by little.

But six months after the purchase from Deutsche Bank, things started to get complicated.

“We just went up there one day and there was a note on the door from this company — a trash-out company,” Rick Rought said. “The doors were broken into.”

The defendants not only changed the locks on the home, but stole some possessions, the Roughts said. All kinds of things were taken — from a dining room set to the American flag mounted outside the home.

“We looked and the curtains were gone, then we started to panic and when we went in, there was virtually nothing left,” Sherry Rought said. “Everything was swept out and gone.”

The couple got the Michigan State Police involved, but the investigation led to dead ends: unreturned messages at Deutsche Bank and a third-party company, Field Asset Services, hired by the bank to maintain the property during foreclosure.

Field Asset Services broke into the home two other times, the Rought family said, treating the property as though it was still foreclosed.

Rick and Sherry Rought decided they could not let their daughter live in the home, considering the circumstances, so they decided to call Attorney Joseph deMello.

“These banks simply do not care,” he said. “It’s not a matter of just taking personal property and getting it back. As mentioned, you are talking about dreams, you are taking away a feeling of security. And it’s something that’s very difficult to come back.”

The couple is filing suit against the bank and its subcontractor in federal court Monday.

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